Two MFISD board members resign

FROM STAFF REPORTS

MARBLE FALLS — Two members of the Marble Falls Independent School District board of trustees have resigned due to one moving out of the district and the other having a family member newly hired on as an athletic coordinator for the district, officials say.

Place 7 board member Kelly Fox and Place 4 trustee Larry Berkman submitted their resignations at the June 20 regular meeting of the board, officials confirmed.

In the case of Fox, a district spokesman confirmed she resigned because of an impending move, which would take her out of the district boundaries. Board members must live within the district.

Fox, the director of the Texas Tech University Regional Teaching sites in Fredericksburg and Marble Falls, was serving her fifth consecutive three-year term.

Berkman, a retired local coach and businessman, submitted his resignation at the meeting prior to a board voting on recommendations for new hires.

Among the list was Berkman’s son, John Berkman, in the position of girls head basketball coach and girls athletic coordinator.

According to Texas Govt. Code 573.002 regarding government officials, including school boards, a voting government official is prohibited from making decisions involving a family member in employment of the entity the board oversees. Larry Berkman still could have served on the board but would have recused himself from any decisions or votes concerning his son.

Berkman, who was elected to the Place 4 position in 2014, resigned prior to the vote on his son, which passed unanimously, a district official confirmed.

Former Place 1 trustee Mike Savage, who did not run in the last election, was appointed by the board to fill Larry Berkman’s position.

That appointment is valid for as long as a year. School board elections are conducted annually.

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